Donald Trump has jumped to the front of Republicans’ 2016 presidential candidate field, holding that position even after a spate of incendiary comments, a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll has found.775

The Outlook

More economists, joined most recently by a team from the New York Fed, believe the federal government’s loose standards for student loans are fueling a vicious cycle of higher college tuition prices, similar to what some say happened with the housing bubble.69

Lawyers for Dylann Roof, the man accused of murdering nine parishioners in a black church in Charleston, S.C., said he wanted to plead guilty to federal charges, but they couldn’t advise him to do so until the government clarified whether it would seek the death penalty.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pressed Egypt’s leaders to move forward with political reform as part of a broader strategy to confront religious extremism and said elections slated for this fall are an important milestone for the Arab country.

Another American illegally killed a lion with a bow and arrow in Zimbabwe several months ago, authorities said amid an international outcry over a U.S. hunter accused of illegally killing a well-known lion named Cecil in early July.